Implements for spraying liquid chemicals on fields, roads and the like typically include a liquid container, a laterally extending liquid conduit mounted on a boom with nozzle bodies connected to the liquid conduit at a desired spacing, and a pump operative to draw liquid from the container and to direct pressurized liquid through the conduit to nozzle\s mounted in the nozzle bodies.
In agricultural operations such chemicals include herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and the like, and each field may be sprayed several times to apply the various chemicals needed during a growing season and between growing seasons. Thus it is desirable to provide spraying implements with very wide coverage and laterally extending booms of 120 feet or more in length.
It is also necessary to move such spraying implements from field to field along roadways, requiring the wide booms to be folded to a narrow width for transport. In wide sprayers the booms are mounted to a vehicle carrying the liquid tank and related equipment and extend about 60 feet or more to the right and left of the vehicle. Such sprayer boom assemblies are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,051 to Humpal and U.S. Pat. No. 7,669,784 to Sobolik, and in United States Published Patent Application Number 2004/0238659 of Wubben et al.
It can be seen that the boom structures often fold several times to achieve a transport position, and it can be seen as well that the booms must be structurally designed to support themselves from inner ends attached to the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,446 to Jesse discloses a triangular boom structure to provide the required strength, and the liquid conduit is mounted inside the structure.
The nozzle bodies are attached to the liquid conduit and may be configured to hold several movable nozzles to accommodate a wide range of liquid application rates for example as illustrated in United States Published Patent Application Number 2009/0184182 of Beeren and U.S. Pat. No. 9,027,853 to Langkamp. Also solenoid valves are commonly added for pulse width modulation of the nozzles to adjust sprayer rates which add further bulk. The nozzle bodies themselves are generally of molded plastic and are very light weight however the solenoid valves are relatively heavy as they contain metal coils, plungers and the like.
The solenoid valves are typically in elongated housings. Often the solenoid valves will extend a relatively significant distance out from the nozzle body, placing torque on the nozzle body which can lead to damage in rough field conditions. The solenoid valve commonly extends perpendicularly out from the sprayer boom which increases the torque exerted on the boom fitting member attaching the nozzle body to the liquid conduit or boom. To reduce this torque it is also known to configure the solenoid valves so same are close to the boom fitting member and extend parallel to the boom.
The size and configuration of the nozzle bodies can be problematic when arranging the bodies on the boom as care must be taken to ensure the nozzle bodies do not contact any part of the apparatus when folding the booms between the operating position and the transport position.